weight of the world
by hectorpriamides
Summary: summary: Hector Priamides has a peaceful life. A girlfriend that he loves (with her own troubled life), a stable family (nineteen and then some) everyone's proclaimed prince of Ilium High School (and the town). What could go wrong? (the answer: the merging of Ilium and Argive high schools, and the upstart Achilles.) (TSOA/Iliad)


The email is sent out in January.

 _ **Students, Parents, Faculty, and Alumni of Ilium High;**_

 _ **Likely, many of you have heard the rumors of Ilium and Agrive possibly combining into one school. For months it had been just that**_ _ **—**_ _ **rumors until the decision was made at last nights meeting. A very unbalanced vote won out for the schools to join.**_

 _ **Beginning next school year, Argives and our dear Trojans will be shifted around. Some students and teachers will be transferred to the opposite school. Circumstances will be met for students who need special accommodations; which include:**_

 _ **special education**_

 _ **course requirements**_

 _ **and extracurricular activities.**_

 _ **More details will be sent out as they are available.**_

 _ **Thank you for consideration,**_

 _ **Priam**_ _ **Laomedonides**_ _ **, superintendent of Ilium-Argive Schools**_

"I'm being sent to Agrive," Andromache says over the phone. "I forwarded you the email saying so." He can almost see the fall of her dark curls over her shoulder, the tight leggings and his sweatshirt (HECTOR – VI). Her apartment is eerily quiet over the line. Quiet is never good.

Hector runs a hand through his hair. He probably should get a trim. "No, you're not. I'll talk to Father." She won't survive without him. She's too gentle and dependent. "How's Astyanax?" _More important, where's your aunt_? is what he needs to ask.

"The little cousin sleeps fruitfully. He went down an hour ago." A click, the mistake of hitting a button when she shouldn't. Father offered to put her on the family plan, what's one more child on a plan of nineteen?

 _Where's_ _your_ _aunt_. He smiles. "That's good." Astyanax is a sweet baby, fine hair like Andromache. His care falls on the young couple (and Hector's old nursemaid who lingers for the ever growing Priam-line) for the most part. "Did you eat?"

She quiets, static over the phone as she moves the phone. "He did."

Hector breathes in. There's never enough food there. There's only food for her aunt, and whatever Andromache manages is given to the kid.(" _It's fine, I eat at school."_ ) She has nothing, no one, he's all she has. Everything will be resolved once she turns eighteen, she can move in with him, and he has the money for lawyers to fight for Astyanax if need be. "I'm picking you up," his key lanyard is in his hand, shoving his feet into his shoes. "And the kid." Unfortunately this is all he can do for now. It's a shitty form of protecting them, taking them out for a week at a time before he has to let them go back. ( _No_ , _you_ _don't_ , he tells himself every time. _Father is a good man he will save her, just ask._ ) He cannot protect Andromache and her only family from afar, cannot aide them, cannot provide for them.

Her voice breaks over the line. "No. It's fine."

He shouts to the little prophetess that he'll be back, tell Mother. He drops into the nursery, where his youngest sibling Polydorus is being helped by the nurse Laothoe, telling her that the littlest little one will be over soon as well.

Hector stops by Priam's home office, who is swamped with meetings and paperwork. He would help if he legally could. In his neatest script all he writes on a legal pad is, _Andromache_ _stays_ _with_ _me_ , placing it somewhere Priam will see it. His hands are calm, he's cool and composed no matter what. The downside of being the elder (but his emotions do get the better of him, fractured ribs and knuckles from parking lot fights with Argives to prove it).

Andromache's sharp elbow digs into his ribs. "This is the last day without the Argives." Her voice is soft and laced with power. Only does his presence amplify hers in the loud cafeteria, drawing the rest of the table's attention to her.

The end of the year. Right. He nods, "All this weighs on my mind too, dear woman*." The thought of Argives in his school has riled him for six months. "It doesn't apply to you and I," he reminds her, his arm over her shoulder in quiet dominance.

His various half-brothers (the ones that don't live with him) look up, all their faces contorted in various shares of dissatisfaction. He _does_ love his family, yet if they get carted to the other school that isn't truly a problem. The Priam line with spread farther, like some fashion trend, and dominate even the Argive school.

Polydamas doesn't look up from his lunch. His scruffy clothes seem too large on him, no matter how much he may eat. "That's nice," angrily, voice low and muttering. He glances up from lunch only as Hector gives him a one armed hug.

"You stay here, my second-hand," smiling at him, ever the diplomat. He cannot promise that to everyone, some brothers and sisters he's never talked to.

Polydamas doesn't budge. "Are you still coming over?" _Again, like every year, we share a birthday, born in hospital rooms beside one another_ , _swaddled in nursery cribs by each other_.

His brown eyes are deep, vacant mud puddles. "Yes, _Prince_." He smirks, popping another tater tot in his mouth.

Hector does invite his favorites over, not counting his friends he's related to. Andromache (and the cousin) and Polydamas are his mains. His other family. He's protected them, especially before Polydamas started sports, without the protection of a good family name (one of his first school yard fights). Andromache has a family _name_ , yet no family to _support_ it. For only seventeen, his hands have been stained with blood for them many times, along with the majority of his full siblings, even against one another.

Andromache wears his sweatshirt, large on her petite frame. Blush covers her cheeks, eyeliner done hastily at the beginning of lunch. Also, it was applied in the morning, her steady hands in the jostling of the car and stops behind school buses (this was a day she was picked up from her aunt's, not home). Her long brown hair tucked into the hood.

"You're meeting us at Hector's. We may be a little late." Her voice is as gentle as ever, only reaching Polydamas because Hector leans back.

Astyanax needs picked up. He's a fun little kid, Polydamas has met him. He doesn't know about her home life, their utmost secret (the little prophet and prophetess claim to know, only one of them is listened to). The reasoning for having the kid there is that Hector and Andromache like to 'babysit' him. And he does love the child. He's not the twenty first child in Priam's lineage, he's the first in Hector's.

Polydamas nods, waving his hand in the air. "I know the drill."

Finishing off the day is boring enough. Collects summer assignments, attends the last track and field meeting attending, about the integration of Argives onto the team. The coach warns rankings will change, those who don't make the top thirty are off the team. Hector has nothing to worry about. The fastest Trojan, the greatest at javelin/discus toss, and the most enduring. No one in Ilium meets him.

Then coach reads off _Achilles Pelidies_ and the energy in the room shifts. They all know of him, Hector's Achaean rival. What no one knew was his transfer to Ilium. Hector had assumed that he would be kept at Argive. The first time they met, sixth grade, he busted the fair runner's lip and broke his nose. He didn't come out unscatched, black eye and loosened teeth. They had to be pulled apart, Achilles's by the dog always on his heel, and Hector by Polydamas. Since that fateful day they somehow never run into each other, always kept at separate events, despite being in the same sports, by Priam and Thetis, Achilles cold mother. He doesn't hold it against the fleet footed lion. Perhaps this is the right set for them to forget their mutual disputants, exchange to twitchy allies, two princes under one roof.

"I'll be right back." Andromache sprints out of his car. She's long-legged, makes the distance in a few strides. Her aunt's car is missing, which manages to quell his fears for his girlfriend, yet anger _does_ spike. Astyanax has been left alone for gods know how long (the school day is eight hours, at least eight hours, the aunt's car was there in the morning). He just has to wait for Andromache's birthday before the kid is out of that apartment.

Astyanax is sleeping peacefully against her breast when she exits. He only stirs when he's placed in the car seat (perks of eighteen younger siblings, plenty of supplies), pulling on the green hoodie. " _Dro!_ " the only discernible thing the infant says, babbling on as he's buckled in.

" _Hec-or!_ " Pudgy hands wave in the air, giggling between baby talk. Hector leans back, nonmotorized digits pull on his longer hair (he has yet to get a haircut).

He grins at the kid. " _Hey_ , Big Man." The white noise of the radio plays perfectly with the kid's babble. "It's been awhile." Three weeks.

The babe nods quickly. The talk runs on, his voice fast and rapid and excited. Andromache slips back in the passenger seat, says _Thank you_ thrown in when the kid takes a breath.

Hector untangles his hand from his hair, sitting the seat back up. "We have to go, kid." She keeps talking to the kid, he focuses on driving. Or, well, waiting until he can legally be Astyanax's guardian. Priam agreed to fund lawyers if needed, Andromache does not want him staying with her aunt ( _his mother_ ). Sure, he's young, but the oldest of nineteen makes you grow up fast, and there is plenty of support in the Priamides house. And _money_ , he has _money_ , he can provide for the both of them. Provide and protect from whatever they need saving from.

( _He doesn't know where they come from, but nightmares plague him of their demises or fates worse. he would rather die than be unable to save them_ —Andromache and Astyanax _ **—**_ _and his family_ _ **—**_ doting Hecuba, the prophets and younger kids and his second-hands. _He knows, sensibly, when he's told that's outrageous, they're right, but he can't bring himself to admit it_.)

Polydamas admits that, " _The perks of you having rich parents is you can drink_ _ **—**_ _supervised_ _."_ It isn't anything heavy, wine over dinner for the kids over fifteen, limited to one glass. Hector doesn't drink, he prefers to stay clear minded, the addled thought pattern is something he would like to avoid. He has to be on guard.

Paris, or Alexander, let's it get to his head. He's a year younger than Hector, hot-tempered and never stops talking about the Argive woman Helen. '"She's so beautiful, she should date _me,_ Menelaus doesn't deserve her, I'm totally taking her to prom," useless babbling. He's certain the youngest ones there can have more intelligent conversations.

Paris, or Alexander, starts talking about how they ran into each other at a store, and "She was, like, totally hitting on me. She _hates_ her boyfriend. She said if they weren't together she would _totally_ date me."

Aeneas, his third cousin or something, chimes in, "Then why doesn't she leave him?"

His brother flusters. "Well _ **—**_ she cannot _—_ she has her _ **—**_ **"**

Hector cuts in. "You will not interfere with the interpersonal relationship of the Achaeans. Do not antagonize them, Paris." The older kids quiet, varying shades of brown eyes looking at him. "None of you will instigate them." He doesn't want unneeded disputes.

No alcohol is permitted in their bedrooms. Gratefully, he can have company over without having an annoying sibling in the room. The eldest sibling gets to room alone. In a house of eighteen remaining kids, the nurse, two (busy) parents, the thirty-two half siblings that visit quite frequently, it's his own quiet space (not with the oracles next door at times) that he doesn't have to share. There's enough room for a closet, full-sized bed, desk, a trunk for Andromache's stuff, and room for an air mattress with plenty of room to still move around. (And, if he wants to, a crib can be moved in for the baby, but the kid usually stays with the nurse at night.)

Hector peels out of his jeans. "I want to punch Paris sometimes." If that stops him from being unreasonable, then so be it.

Andromache, in just the sweatshirt and shorts, shifts. "Your family can be hard to deal with. Violence is an extreme." Gentle woman who blushes even now _ **—**_ three years in their relationship _ **—**_ at simple kissing on the lips. Which is why he pulls on a pair of gym shorts, to keep her calm so she'll sleep in the same bed as him. She's fine with him being shirtless.

"I have to agree with her. Stay _calm_." Polydamas is already laying on the air mattress in his boxers. He does stay calm. His brawl with Achilles six years ago was him wrapped up in his emotions, an accident, losing his calm.

He fumbles to plug in his phone. "I expect the both of you to not engage with the Argives in nothing but a diplomatic manner." His senior year, his final year, he will keep the peace, for his family.

A snicker from the floor. "You're the one who punched Golden Boy."

"That was _years_ ago."

" _Still._ "

Hector rolls his eyes. He wants peace. "I'm not going to fight any of them."


End file.
